Saturday June 21, 2014 Liard River Hot Springs, British Columbia, Canada

With 190 miles to drive today we didn’t hurry up get started.  I made coffee and we got started on that.  Yesterday it rained quite a bit and it rained a little during the night.  But this morning it was only cloudy.  I cleaned up the mess of mud I made on the steps and the throw rugs just inside the coach and then started getting the outside of the coach ready to travel.  I had the sewer and grey water connected so I drained those tanks and put away the hose.  I also filled the fresh water tank; it was down to ½ tank and tomorrow is dry camping.  Although I don’t normally like to carry a full tank of fresh water, when I know we don’t have water at the next stop I like to fill the tank. No chance of running out of water that way.

We pulled out of the park at 10:00.  I think we were the last to leave.  The drive today was a repeat of yesterday, BC-97 all the way to the next RV Park.

Today was a different story on wildlife sightings for us.  We saw a small black bear, 

Stone Sheep

followed by two more black bears and then three black bears.  All those wildlife sightings were in the first 60 miles. 

We made a stop at Testa River RV Park and Services.  They have a restaurant renown for their cinnamon buns.  We bought two and split one before leaving the parking area.  The other we saved for later.

We saw stone sheep at mile 89.  There were several adults and several babies.  Just before arriving at the RV Park we saw a large number of bison on both sides of the road.

We had to stop across the road from the entrance to the camping area and unhook the Jeep.  During this stop I noticed that antifreeze was dripping from the engine.  It looked like it was coming from the water pump.  I had been keeping track of the engine temperature through the hills and it had never overheated.  I plan to make sure there is enough water in the tank and make it on to either Whitehorse or Dawson City and find a Cummins repair station and get it fixed.

Female Moose

Liard River Hot Springs is a Provincial Park and has no hook ups.  I found a cache at the trailhead to the hot springs and got the information for an Earth Cache at the ranger station. 

 We had breakfast for dinner.  Gerri used up the leftovers from Shepherd’s and added eggs.

Male Moose

Black Bear

Bison

Smores were planned at 5 before our briefing for tomorrow’s travel.  There was no fire pit so the park employees installed one during the briefing.  Then the fire was built and Smores were made.  I have never mentioned it but at the first briefing Nancy presented Teddy or Theodora.  Teddy is a stuffed bear that has been a tradition on Fantasy Caravans to Alaska.  A couple was chosen by Nancy to travel with the bear and care for it.  They are free to redress the bear or attach items,  and write in Teddy’s diary about their adventures.  That original couple then picks the next care taker and so  on through the whole group.  Tonight was our lucky night, we got the bear.  We will pick a new victim and pass the bear on in Teslin on Monday night.

After smores Bob and Rebecca came to our coach and we talked for awhile, mostly about grandchildren.

We were dry camping so we were in the power conserving mode.  I had turned off the outside refrigerator and the DirecTV equipment.  This far north we don’t get a TV signal anyway. We did do some Sudoku before bed time.  We were in bed by 10:30